Ethereum (ETH) Maps Route To the Constantinople Update and Beyond That

It is no secret that the Ethereum (ETH) community has been preparing for the Constantinople hard fork. This upgrade is going to be the next step on a pathway that will leave mining behind. At a 7,080,000 block height, the Ethereum Constantinople update will effectively change the rules for the networks’ consensus. The long-anticipated upgrade is expected to take place on January 14 and January 18.

Hard forks are typically system-wide upgrades that are meant to be harmless although become the cause or result of some in-fighting within the crypto community. The most famous hard fork ever for the Ethereum Blockchain occurred after the DAO hack. A time when the majority of the digital asset community rewounded transaction history in order to restore the hacked funds to original owners.

What is the Constantinople Update?

The Constantinople update is “designed to ensure that the overall security, functionality and scalability, are improved. This will be achieved by addressing the key technical points within the network’s code.” The upgrade consists of five different EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals), which “describes standards for the Ethereum (ETH) platform, including their core protocol specifications, contract standards and client APIs.

The upgrade will make way for a smoother transition from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm to the Proof of Stake (PoS) model.

Constantinople features several small, yet highly technical improvements. These improvements to the Ethereum protocol are designed to boost the overall functionality, scalability and security, of the biggest smart contract platform. The update will also include alterations to the Ethereum (ETH) economic policy by cutting down block rewards and taking away the “Difficulty Bomb.”

How Will the ProgPoW Work Until Staking Begins

On the road to shift to a PoS model, Ethereum developers have decided to implement the Programmatic Proof-of-Work (ProgPow). The ProgPoW is an alternative to the PoW consensus algorithm designed to bring the performance gap of the ASIC and GPU mining rigs closer.

Many members in the Ethereum (ETH) community are concerned about the ASIC-mining domination on Ethereum as the sum of ASICs on the platform has steadily increased. According to the concerned parties, if this continues, there’s a risk that energy could be consolidated among mining rigs.

The ProgPoW would drop the improvement ratio of the specialized ASIC, making it untenable for investing. The ProgPoW is an ‘ASIC-resistant’ model that works to make sure that mining power isn’t centralized by only a few players in the space.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Today – ETH / USD

What is Staking ETH Tokens Going to Look Like After the Update?

The next big thing after the Ethereum Constantinople upgrade is the Casper update when Ethereum holders will have the capability to stake their coins. Hence, as opposed to the mining of blocks, network participants will instead be rewarded for holding Ether and running a node for a specific period of time. Additionally, stakers will be randomly chosen from a large section of token holders and will earn rewards proportional to the total number of ETH tokens they hold.

Regarding who needs to run the update, since it is a hard fork, the chain of computers operating the Ethereum (ETH) software must upgrade or carry on operating independently. All in all the Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople update remains a paramount upgrade for the ordinary users and developers on the network.